DETROIT (WXYZ) – A 4-year-old is in hospital with serious injuries Friday after being shot twice by his own mother.
Detroit police said it was accidental and the mother claimed to have cleaned the gun when it was released from the hospital.
However, investigators say the mother initially made up a story to blame.
Police said the incident happened on Brush Street near East Grand Avenue at around 3pm
“Well, I hate what happened here because I’ve known this family all my life,” one tenant told 7 Action News.
“Mother, I helped when she was just a child, when she was a child. The whole family is like my family,” he added.
The neighbor, who asked not to be named, said he was surprised to see police in and around the building after he got home.
“We are going through a lot of information. The way the call came from the hospital and we’re trying to match things up with what the mother was telling us,” Detroit Police Chief James White said.
White said the woman initially told detectives that a man tried to snatch her wallet when she and her 4-year-old daughter entered their apartment. After fighting him, the woman claimed the man fired multiple shots at the girl and then fled the scene in a pickup truck.
“Regardless of how this story comes together, the bottom line is we have a 4-year-old kid shot at this house,” the sheriff said.
Police said the story emerged about 30 minutes after the news conference with the sheriff. Authorities told 7 Action News that the woman admitted there was no intention to snatch her purse, there was no robber and that she herself had shot her child twice by accident while cleaning a gun.
“She is a kind girl. No one deserves a bullet. Nobody,” said the neighbor.
Police said the child is expected to survive.
The mother was imprisoned. No weapons were recovered Friday night.
